End-of-Procrastination Celebration!

Procrastination is a funny thing.  I almost wish I hadn’t been so prolific in my earlier journal-keeping, back in those newborn and early infancy days, so that it wouldn’t look so glaringly horrific that I haven’t been keeping up with things now that the buggle (our constant nickname for our son, giggle all you want but it makes us smile) has grown up!  Ok he’s not exactly graduating from college or anything, but the difference between a baby of a few months and one that is nearly (gasp!!!) ten months is pretty big.  Young babies are just little lumps of yummy that you keep close to your heartbeat and life centers around luxurious napping/cuddling and near-constant nurse-a-thons.  Worldly interests are pretty much limited to what’s going on inside mommy’s shirt, and it’s a snuggly (if a bit milky) time.  These days the buggle is interested in EVERYTHING.  He crawls and stops to put something he sees in his mouth.  He cruises around the house hanging onto tables or chairs and bends his body so that he can put the furniture itself into his mouth (well he can’t fit the whole table in his mouth but he tries).  He tries to climb me as I sit on the floor and uses my mouth and my hair to pull himself up higher, and then puts my hair or my nose or whatever, in his mouth.  Speaking of putting things in his mouth, the buggle is amused by nothing more than by staring at my face and sticking his fingers into my mouth in order to have them nibbled on.  If I make monster eating sounds while nibbling on his fingers, this only increases the sensational excitement of the whole experience.  He is surprised by the feeling of having his fingers bitten and withdraws them violently with a look of total shock on his face, then instantly giggles and with a big smile on his face thrusts his hand back into my mouth.  If my mouth isn’t open very wide he’ll fondle my teeth until he gets them in, so it’s best to oblige from the get-go.  This can go on for many minutes until he decides it’s best to stick his fingers up my nose and probably wiggle them around, although I don’t allow this to get very far.  For some reason I don’t mind chewing on my son’s fingers but don’t want him to pick my nose.  Go figure.

But I digress (although digressing is the meat of this whole journal and really not to be frowned on, I assume).  The point is that I have procrastinated BADLY from regularly updating my journal that I had such ambitious plans for regularly updating.  But I have decided to just jump back in with both feet, because I couldn’t think of any other solution!  I can try my best to recap the last few months: 6 months old and godmama Jen came to visit from New York and we had a blast touring Stockholm and visiting Laura’s café daily….7-8 months just figuring out how to get up on all 4s and think about crawling, and getting more and more exhuberant about all the people in the world he can flirt with…. 8 months we visited the US and stayed with Jen again and her family fell in love with the bug all over again, while he worked hard to fly on his belly in their living room on the carpet….but at 9 months he figured out that he wasn’t going anywhere on his belly and started actually moving on his hands and knees and now is really, really fast!

I think that’s pretty much the best recap I can do, considering the really good stuff is the nonsense that you either write down as it happens, or you’ll forget it.  That’s ok, he’s not exactly ancient in age yet, and I’ll pick up from here, hopefully updating much more often, and keeping you all informed of the nonsense that consists of my daily life with Aleksi. 

Actually—wait, hold on a second---there is one thing I’ve been remiss in leaving out about our daily existence these last few months.  My friend Crystal, who is studying abroad here in Finland from the west coast of the US, has become quite the daily staple in our happiness.  She spent most days with us during the late winter/disgusting and wet spring, hanging out with us at Laura’s, baking cookies in our apartment, renting movies, and slinging Aleksi around town.  She even took the buggle in the sling for walks while I caught a private nap or shower at home, the angel girl she is.  I have to brag about her because we have had a blast together, and I love that I’ve had such a good (American!) friend these last few months, and I am blessed for every ridiculous (American!) joke we’ve shared.  She’s here for 2 and a half more months and I am so glad she found a family to Au Pair for so that we could hang out on weekends and evenings some more!

The cloth diaper obsession has only intensified, and now I am converting those I meet.  Yay!  I met a young woman wearing her newborn baby girl at Laura’s café a couple of weeks ago, and I invited them over for tea the following week.  Kaisa was already cloth diapering little Aino, but in pretty un-cute supplies, if you ask me.  I solved that!  All of the buggles cutie stuff that he can’t fit his chubby bum into anymore got passed to Aino for borrowing, and she looked marvelous in cute little colorful fitted diapers with prints on them, and snuggly soft merino wool soakers and covers on top.  I’m so glad that some of my newborn/small sized stuff that was just sitting around and not getting the little-baby-bum-love is now being regularly used and appreciated!  I also thought Kaisa was awesome for other reasons than her cloth diapering, too.  She was incredibly nice and outgoing, looking me right in the eye and smiling, as I have not noticed many Finns to do comfortably.  She breastfed her daughter with abandon (which I so respect!), and seemed really interested in spending an appropriate amount of energy on motherhood on raising this and future children.  Yay for her!  I needed to hear that after another friend informing me that she was going to be putting her small baby into full-time daycare, even though she is not in a financial situation that would require her to work (it’s a preference for her to be at work full-time rather than raise her baby).  It feels so amazing when I meet a likeminded mommy!  I think that’s why I’ve been obsessively visiting www.mothering.com discussion boards—most of the crunchy moms on there are as enthusiastic about natural parenting as I am, and I feel less alone.  I think being a foreigner will inevitably lead to some loneliness, add that to not having so many friends, and practicing a lifestyle that is not the mainstream, and given that I am such a social creature, and I have clung to  mothering.com like crazy!  I love the crazy, funny, dedicated-mommy-ladies there so much!  Yay for them.

My mother is coming to visit us in just a couple weeks, and she’s staying for 5 whole weeks.  I am insecure about Finland being a nice place to visit in July, since summer hasn’t arrived yet and I am worried it won’t at all this year.  It’s been gray, stormy, rainy, and windy all June and I sincerely hope that July is the kind of month that doesn’t convince my mother never to leave her home in TN for a visit to her daughter ever again!  I know, I know, she’s not coning for the weather, but still I’d love to be able to do a lot of fun, outdoor things with her and the buggle.  We shall see…. 
One of my awesome girlfriends from online is considering coming to visit me in August and bringing her son (who is one year older than Aleksi) with her!  She’s a single mama and I am wondering if it isn’t possible that she’d meet some yummy man out here and stay permanently!  Just kidding, I doubt that would happen, but still you never know.  Our friend Fabricio is leaving Finland soon to take a job in San Diego (where she lives), so maybe they’ll hit it off and continue things on the west coast… so many possibilities (I am such a relentless matchmaker, it’s not even funny!).

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